/o,z.j. 


RARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINAR 

PRINCETON,   N.  J. 


Presented  by 


L Widow  of  G^eor^e  Duo'^n,  ^^ 


BV  4541  .G86  1899 
Gunsaulus,  Frank  Wakeley, 

1856-1921. 
Young  men  in  history 


Y^l^ 


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YOUNG  MEN  IN  HISTORY 


The  Quiet  Hour  Series 

iSmOy  decorated  cloth^  each  2^  cents 

How  the  Inner  Light  Failed 

By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  author  of"  A  Man's  Value 
to  Society,"  etc. 

The  Man  Who  Wanted  to  Help 

By  Rev,  J,  G.  K.  McClure,  D.D.  author  of  "  Possi- 
bilities." 

Young  Men       By  Rev.  F.  W.  Gunsaulus,  D.D. 

The  Autobiography  of  St.  Paul 

Faith  Building      By  Rev.  Wm.  P.  Merrill,  D.D. 

The  Dearest  Psalm 

And  The  Model  Prayer.  By  Henry  Ostrom,  D.D. 
The  Life  Beyond 

By  Mrs.  Alfred  Gatty,  author  of  "  Parables  from 
Nature." 

Mountain  Tops  with  Jesus 

By  Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.D. 
A  Life  for  a  Life 

And  other  Addresses.  By  Prof.  Henry  Drummond. 
With  Portrait. 

Peace,  Perfect  Peace 

A  Portion  for  the  Sorrowing.  By  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer, 
B.A. 

Money 

Thoughts  for  God's  Stewards.  By  Rev.  Andrew 
Murray. 

Jesus  Himself 

By  Rev.  Andrew  Murray,  With  Portrait  of  the 
Author. 

Love  Made  Perfect     By  Rev.  Andrew  Murray. 

The  Ivory  Palaces  of  the  King 

By  Rev.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman,  D.D. 
Christ  Reflected  in  Creation. 

By  D.  C.  McMillan. 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 
CHICAGO  NEW  YORK  TORONTO 


(■ 


Young  Men  in  History 


/ 


Frank  W.   Gunsaulus,  D.D. 


Chicago     New  York     Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 
mdcccxcix 


Copyright,  1898 
By  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


Young  Men  in  History 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that 
the  Bible  is  the  young  man's  book, 
and  its  greatest  story  is  the  story  of 
a  young  man.  The  scene  in  that 
story  which  would  most  affect  young 
men,  if  they  were  to  read  the  Bible 
as  they  would  read  Homer  or  Virgil, 
and  especially  if  they  were  to  read 
the  Bible  as  they  read  any  history  of 
a  great  nation,  such  as  was  Israel,  is 
the  baptism  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  by 
his  young  friend  and  cousin,  John. 

A  life  so  organic  and  influential 
as  that  of  Jesus  of  Galilee  is  sure  to 
have  the  center  of  its  forcefulncss  at 


Young  Men  in  History 

such  an  epoch-making  point  as  this. 
At  that  baptism  scene  the  heavens 
truly  opened  upon  the  spirit  and  life 
of  Christ.  At  that  time,  in  His 
mighty  growth,  the  dove  descended 
from  out  the  bosom  of  eternity. 
That  dignity  which  in  earlier  days 
had  said  with  innocent  grandeur, 
"  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about 
My  Father's  business?"  now  real- 
ized itself,  and  became  conscious 
through  the  objective  responses  of 
infinity  unto  Him  as  He  received  His 
baptism,  saw  the  open  heavens,  and 
felt  the  footfalls  of  a  divine  destiny 
upon  His  uncovered  head. 

So  while  every   human  being  has 
a   profound   interest    in   this  episode 
in   Jesus'  life,  because  His  conscious 
0 


Young  Men  in  History 

life-center  seemed  to  have  been  first 
touched  at  that  point,  every  young 
man  must  realize  that  there  lies  the 
most  sublime  scene  unto  him  in  all 
the  picture  gallery  of  the  mighty 
past,  a  scene  of  such  special  signifi- 
cance in  the  history  of  our  Master 
as  to  have  invested  every  young 
man's  life  with  an  undreamed  gran- 
deur and  an  unforeseen  dignity.  It 
must  and  shall  stand  as  the  most 
characteristic  scene  which  has  been 
left  us  as  the  heritage  of  young  men 
of  all  time.  For  whatever  else  Jesus 
was,  and  there  were  altitudes  and 
latitudes  of  being  in  Him  of  which 
we  have  only  the  feeblest  apprehen- 
sion, He  stands  here  as  the  typical 
young    man.       No     speculation     or 

7 


Young  Men  in  History 

denial  can  take  Him  from  our  own 
ranks,  my  brothers.  No  heresies 
have  been  so  profound,  no  literalism 
of  any  orthodoxy  has  been  so  heart- 
less, as  to  dethrone  our  hero  and  our 
saint.  We  claim  Him  to-day  as  our 
champion  and  our  representative, 
even  though,  by  being  so  near.  He  is 
also  our  Savior  and  our  propitiation. 
To  students  and  professors  of  di- 
dactics we  say:  "Exalt  Him!  Crown 
Him  Lord  of  all !  Cover  Him  with 
names  that  we  cannot  understand! 
Add  all  the  metaphysical  lore  you 
have  dreamed  unto  all  the  research 
you  have  made,  and  decorate  it  with 
nomenclature  so  perplexing  as  to 
distance  all  the  past!  Nevertheless, 
Jesus  is    still  the  young  man's  own 


Young  Men  in   History 

brother  and  the  most  splendid  and 
greatest  name  on  God's  roll  call  of 
young  men." 

When  the  roll  call  which  men 
have  written  is  read,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  young  men  have  ruled  the 
world.  The  oldest  literatures  have 
this  record.  The  patriarchs  un- 
folded the  careers  of  boys  into  the 
conquests  of  old  age.  Kingdom  and 
empire  rode  upon  shoulders  of  young 
men,  and  their  voices  of  enthusiasm 
and  hope  have  sounded  through 
many  a  black-breasted  midnight  and 
trumpeted  the  dawn  through  skies  of 
thickest  darkness.  To  causes  that 
drooped  they  have  come  and  added 
the  raptures  of  hope;  to  enterprises 
that  were  sickening  and  faint,  they 
9 


Young  Men  in  History 

have  brought  the  bounding  power  of 
new  enthusiasm.  To  the  dead  they 
have  brought  life.  Everything  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world  has  been 
crying  for  "young  blood,"  and  the 
armies  of  the  advance  have  gained 
the  day  at  the  arrival  of  "  recruits," 
whose  hope  and  earnestness  have 
never  been  defeated.  Age  and  ex- 
perience put  themselves  upon  dying 
pillows  m.ade  by  young  hands  ;  into 
young  palms  and  upon  young  ears 
falls  the  meaning  of  all  the  past;  and 
thus  God  has  written  the  natural 
dignity  of  the  young  man's  life  in 
the  eternal  statute  book  of  the  uni- 
verse. It  makes  the  young  ever- 
more the  custodian  of  the  old,  and 
grants  discharges  to  the  old  that  the 


Young  Men  in  History 

young  may  seize  their  fallen  muskets 
and  push  on  to  universal  triumph. 

The  reins  of  the  future  have  been 
caught  and  held  by  young  hands.  At 
fifteen,  Victor  Hugo  presented  a 
poem  to  the  academy;  at  sixteen, 
Bossuet  dazzled  all  who  heard  him 
by  his  eloquence,  and  Leigh  Hunt 
was  a  prolific  writer  of  verses.  At 
seventeen,  Michael  Angelo  had  room 
in  the  palace  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici, 
Mozart  had  entranced  the  courts  of 
Germany,  Chateaubriand  had  a  com- 
mission, Alexander  Hamilton  com- 
manded the  attention  of  his  country, 
Washington  Irving  delighted  the 
readers  of  the  Morning  Chronicle.  At 
eighteen  Charles  Spurgeon  was  pas- 
tor of  a  congregation  ;  Zwingli  had 


Young  Men  in  History 

read  the  New  Testament  so  well  as 
to  doubt  the  authority  of  the  church  ; 
Grotius  had  published  an  edition  of 
"  Marcianus  Capella."  At  nineteen 
Bach  was  organist  at  Armstadt; 
George  Washington  was  a  major ; 
Webster  had  understood  Espinasse  j 
Bryant  had  written  "Thanatopsis; " 
George  Stephenson  was  carrying  in 
his  brain  an  improved  steam  engine ; 
Galileo  was  awake  to  the  secret  of 
the  vibrations  of  the  bronze  lamp  of 
Pisa  cathedral.  At  twenty  Robert 
Hall  had  an  enthusiastic  audience ; 
Alexander  mounted  the  throne ; 
Weber  was  producing  symphonies; 
Schelling  had  grappled  with  the  phi- 
losophy of  Kant ;  Wallace  had  made 
assault   against    the   arbitrary   domi- 

12 


Young  Men  in  History 

nance  of  Edward  I.  At  twenty-one 
Beethoven  had  added  a  great  name 
to  music  ;  Kirke  White  had  left  his 
tremulous  lyre ;  William  Wilber- 
force  was  in  Parliament ;  Mazzini 
was  a  prisoner  in  the  citadel  of  Sa- 
vona.  At  twenty-two  Alfred  began 
one  of  the  most  magnificent  reigns 
which  England  has  ever  seen ;  his 
commander  had  made  Wallenstein 
captain  of  the  conquered  fortress  of 
Grau  ;  Hampden  was  in  Parliament ; 
Savonarola  was  robed  with  a  splendid 
name ;  Algernon  Sydney  had  antago- 
nized Cromwell ;  Rossini  had  ex- 
cited an  enthusiasm  unequaled  in  the 
world  of  music ;  Schiller's  "  Rob- 
bers" had  been  written;  Richelieu 
was  a  Bishop  ;  Sir  Phillip  Sydney  had 
13 


Young  Men  in  History 

been  sent  to  complete  the  alliance  of 
Protestantism. 

At  twenty-three  Servetus  had  found 
the  intolerance  of  fanaticism  ;  Spi- 
noza was  excommunicated;  Rubens 
had  "  compounded  from  the  splendor 
of  Paul  Veronese  and  the  glory  of 
Tinteretto,  that  florid  system  of 
mannered  magnificence  which  is  the 
element  of  his  art  and  the  principle 
of  his  school ;  "  Browning  had  writ- 
ten "  Paracelsus  ;  "  Sir  Henry  Vane 
had  filled  Boston  with  enthusiasm ; 
Richard  Wagner  carried  with  him 
the  music  of  "  Lohengrin  ;  "  White- 
field  was  preaching  in  the  Tower 
Chapel  at  London  ;  Bailey  had  writ- 
ten "  Festus  ;  "  Emmet  had  thrilled 
Ireland  with  pathetic  patriotism ; 
H 


Young  Men  in  History 


Arthur  Hallam  had  furnished  Ten- 
nyson with  his  greatest  poem  ;  Hume 
had  composed  his  treatise  on  "  Hu- 
man Nature."  At  twenty-four  Bis- 
marck was  captain  of  King's  Cav- 
alry; Alexander  had  taken  Thebes 
and  had  crossed  the  Hellespont; 
Ariosto  had  made  his  muse  support  a 
family;  Dante  was  a  distinguished 
soldier  and  poet ;  Ruskin  had  written 
'^  Modern  Painters  ;  "  Santa  Ana  had 
expelled  the  Royalist  from  Vera 
Cruz ;  Rutledge  was  the  orator  for 
the  colonies  ;  Scipio  had  commanded 
the  armies  of  Rome ;  Sheridan  had 
written  "  The  Rivals  ;  "  Rienzi  had 
come  forth  as  the  second  Brutus ; 
Richter  had  charmed  Herder.  At 
twenty-five  Bernard  had  changed 
15  • 


Young  Men  in  History 

"The  Valley  of  Wormwood"  into 
Clairvaux  ;  i^schylus  was  the  great- 
est tragic  poet  of  Greece ;  Xavier 
lectured  on  Aristotle  ;  Coleridge  had 
written  "The  Ancient  Mariner;" 
Huss  had  become  a  flaming  herald 
for  truth  ;  Southey  had  burned  more 
verses  than  he  published  during  life. 
At  twenty-six  Robespierre  defended 
the  work  of  Franklin  against  igno- 
rance ;  Franklin,  himself,  wrote  the 
wisdom  of  "  Poor  Richard  ;  "  Roger 
Williams  had  aroused  all  the  intoler- 
ance of  New  England;  Turner  was 
a  member  of  the  Royal  Academy ; 
Mark  Antony  was  the  hero  of  Rome. 
At  twenty-seven  Oberlin  had  a  par- 
ish of  9,000  acres  of  rocky  soil ; 
Daniel  O'Connell  had  begun  his 
'16 


Young  Men  in  History 

career  as  an  agitator;  Correggio  had 
the  commission  to  execute  the  fres- 
coes on  the  cupola  of  San  Giovanni 
in  Parma. 

At  twenty-eight,  Wordsworth  was 
joint  author  with  Coleridge ;  War- 
wick was  a  distinguished  soldier  on 
the  Scottish  border  ;  Hannibal  took 
Saguntum  while  Rome  deliberated  on 
its  rescue ;  Bacon  was  counsel  ex- 
traordinary for  the  Queen ;  Napo- 
leon had  revolutionized  Europe.  At 
twenty-nine  Robert  South's  elo- 
quence had  moved  British  royalty  ; 
Lord  John  Russell  was  a  reformer 
in  Parliament ;  Milton  was  the  au- 
thor of  "  Comus  ; '*  Arminius  had 
liberated  Germany ;  Cromwell  had 
begun  his  work.  At  thirty,  Rey- 
17 


Young  Men  in  History 

nolds  was  the  greatest  portrait  painter 
in  England  ;  Da  Vinci  had  said  :  "  I 
will  undertake  any  work  in  sculpture, 
in  marble,  in  bronze,  or  in  terra- 
cotta— likewise  in  painting  I  can  do 
as  well  as  any  man,  be  he  who  he 
may." 

All  these,  with  the  thousands  of 
others,  are  only  some  of  the  young 
men  who  have  ruled  the  world.  Their 
life  work  had  been  begun  and  its  in- 
spiration had  been  gained.  John 
Keats,  Pitt,  Summerfield,  and  Ma- 
caulayare  only  some  of  our  fair  names. 
Yet,  my  brothers,  no  one  of  these 
can  stand  as  our  perfect  representa- 
tive. No  scene  in  any  life  I  have 
mentioned  can  be  called  a  character- 
istic scene  for  that  ideal  young  man 
i8 


Young  Men  in  History 

of  which  we  dream.  There,  at  the 
banks  of  Jordan  stand  the  ages  to 
look,  beyond  all  heroism  and  all  con- 
quest, upon  that  face  rising  out  of 
that  hour  of  consecration  with  the 
youth  of  his  career  all  aglow  with  the 
splendor  of  God — the  young  Jesus 
beginning  His  mighty  manhood  with 
God. 

Jesus  avoided  no  law  of  growth, 
no  statute  of  the  world,  or  order  of 
nature,  no  sacrament  of  society  or  of 
God.  He  came  upon  the  unspoken 
tendencies  of  the  past,  to  speak  them 
properly  and  truly.  He  came  upon 
the  bosom  of  the  unfulfilled  to  fulfill 
it.  To  do  that.  He  walked  through 
our  life.  He  came  not  to  break  it 
and  to  say:  "It  is  nothing."  He 
19 


Young  Men  in  History 

came  to  complete  it,  and  to  say  :  "  It 
is  everything,  because  divine."  So 
human  life  was  reconstituted,  be- 
cause reorganized,  by  His  having 
passed  through  it  divinely.  And  the 
old  law  was  again  illustrated — a  man 
leaves  himself  in  what  he  does  or 
touches  truly.  Human  existence  has 
been  larger  since  Jesus  took  it  up, 
kissed  it  in  His  life,  and  laid  it  down, 
lovingly  in  His  death.  It  is  a  greater 
thing  to  have  been  a  lawyer  since 
PufFendorf,  Selden,  Otis,  and  Cock- 
burn.  They  have  enlarged  the  defi- 
nition of  lawyer.  It  is  much  more 
to  be  a  good  or  great  preacher  since 
Robertson,  Brooks,  Beecher.  They 
have  added  dignity  to  the  work.  It 
is  more  to  be  an  artist  since  Meis- 


Young  Men  in  History 

sonier  and  Corot ;  more  to  be  a 
singer  since  Jenny  Lind  ;  more  to  be 
a  hero  since  Havelock  and  Gordon  ; 
more  to  be  a  man  since  any  true  soul 
has  enlarged  and  enriched  the  idea  of 
manhood,  in  himself.  This,  in  a 
divine  way,  is  the  effect  of  Jesus' 
career  upon  all  human  life.  And 
this  enlarging  of  its  significance,  the 
improving  of  its  dignity,  is  what  Jesus 
did  with  the  consecrating  of  His  life 
to  righteousness  and  duty  in  that 
glorious  baptismal  scene. 

Some  method  of  consecration  to 
life's  great  duties  has  made  a  place  in 
all  religions  and  in  their  ceremonies. 
And  the  various  sacraments  are  a 
proof  that,  in  all  ages  and  places, 
within  the  consciousness  of  the  race, 

21 


Young  Men  in  History 

there  is  a  peculiar  recognition  of  the 
special  fitness  of  youth  for  the  serv- 
ices of  God  and  the  offices  of  hu- 
manity. There  is  no  more  charming 
study  than  the  following  up  through 
all  kinds  of  literature  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  confessed  dignity  of  a 
young  man's  life  through  these  many 
forms.  For,  even  before  Jesus  came, 
in  every  young  Pericles,  there  pulsed 
the  same  distinctive  elements  which 
fit  young  men  for  the  dignified  busi- 
ness of  opening  new  futures,  and 
standing,  in  a  sublime  present,  as  the 
guardian  of  a  hard-won  past.  These 
two,  which  we  feel  so  keenly  —  a 
fullness  of  life  which  we  call  "  en- 
thusiasm," and  an  affection  for 
dreams  of  the  future,  which,  roughly, 

22 


Young  Men  in  History 

we  call  "  hope,"  are  constitutional 
in  young  men;  and,  added  to  those 
common  faculties  which  are  the  race's 
being,  they  make  the  young  man  what 
he  is.  So  that,  in  and  of  himself, 
there  is  a  peculiar  dignity  in  every 
young  man  here  to-day.  The  capital 
of  the  race  has  not  been  computed 
and  rightly  estimated,  if  there  has  not 
been  put  among  the  greatest  the  fact 
that  in  every  one  of  us  it  finds  that 
peculiar  love  for  the  new  and  strik- 
ing, which  has  espoused  enterprises 
and  builded  convoys  unto  it ;  that 
ardent  admiration  of  heroism  which 
has  turned  the  defeats  of  a  great  cause 
into  victories ;  that  burning  and 
abounding  vitality  which  has  rushed 
up  the  altar  steps  of  the  untried  and 
23 


Young  Men  in  History 

the  unknown  and  made  its  edifice 
beyond  the  clouds  ;  that  architectural 
passion  which  swung  air  castle  after 
air  castle  into  the  void,  rebuilded 
it  again  and  again  from  fallen 
pieces  and  flat  ruins,  and  builds  yet, 
on  foundations  which  no  man  saw, 
unto  heights  whereto  no  flood  has 
swept.  In  these  efforts  alone  do 
we  see  the  eternal  colors  and  forms 
which  the  buoyant  soul  of  a  young 
man  takes  on. 

Surveying  calmly  what  distin- 
guishes a  young  man  from  one  of 
riper  years,  we  revolt  as  we  look  at 
that  philosophy  of  a  young  man's  life, 
born  in  the  atmosphere  of  hopeless- 
ness and  faithlessness,  which  proposes 
to  keep  a  young  man  safe  by  "  hold- 
24 


Young  Men  in  History 

ing  him  down  "  until  he  gets  "  old 
enough  to  know  better;"  by  repress- 
ing all  his  buoyancy  and  idealism 
until  it  grows  sane  and  quiet;  by 
fastening  him  to  an  old  man's  body 
of  ideas  until  he  shall  be  "broken 
in  "  to  the  serenity  of  a  calmer  life. 
That  philosophy  has  been  tried,  and 
its  ruins  are  everywhere.  It  is  just 
about  as  sure  to  leave  a  man  in  ruins 
as  all  growth  is  to  leave  in  ruins  that 
which  impedes  it.  If  youth  cannot 
air  itself  and  go  out  in  expression, 
it  will  explode  and  lay  waste  the 
premises.  To  avoid  explosion,  don't 
shut  It  up  and  drive  nails  into  the 
doors,  for  the  pounding  will  strike 
the  explosive,  and  you  will  not  live 
to  look  at  the  ruin.  It  is  absurd;  it 
25 


Young  Men  in  History 

always  was  wicked  faithlessness  to 
God  to  think  that  you  must  suppress 
and  kill  a  boy  to  make  anything  out 
of  him.  If  you  hitch  the  body  of 
some  old  man's  theories  to  him,  you 
will  hear  him  crying:  "  Who  shall 
deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this 
death?  "  And  he  will  die  or  be  de- 
livered. Deliverance  is  better  than 
death.  For  the  ideal  young  of  many 
of  our  Sunday-school  books  and  some 
men's  minds  is  a  dead  boy.  He  has 
not  vitality  enough  to  be  tempted. 
He  is  a  boy  of  no  opinions.  He  is 
supposed  to  "be  still  while  other 
people  talk" — no  difference  what 
fool  is  talking,  or  how  much  more 
he  may  know.  His  value  seems  to 
lie  in  his  being  an  echo,  not  a  voice. 
26 


Young  Men  in   History 

Above  all  things,  he  must  not  do  this 
and  do  that;  and  heaven  only  knows 
what  he  can  and  may  do  safely. 
Well,  he  is  a  dead  weight  and  a 
stumbling  block  when  he  gets  "of 
age."  He  is  supposed  to  know 
nothing  until  he  has  been  informed, 
and  then  he  has  information  enough 
given  to  him  to  submerge  a  conti- 
nent. Take  a  hundred  such  men 
and  you  can  pile  them  up  like  stacks 
of  sawdust  or  like  rails.  This  is  the 
result  of  the  philosophy  of  repression. 
Standing  by  this  baptism  scene,  I 
discern  the  outlines  of  another  phi- 
losophy of  a  young  man's  life.  It  is 
the  philosophy  of  consecration  and 
expression.  Instead  of  repression, 
holding  down,  pushing  into  a  corner 
27 


Young  Men  in  History 

all  the  tumultuous  forces  of  life, 
Jesus  would  carry  it  to  the  stream 
of  divine  glory,  bury  it  in  its  current, 
and  lift  it  out,  to  be  a  new  power  in 
the  world,  sent  out  like  an  evangel, 
in  the  freedom  of  universal  atmos- 
phere, in  the  liberty  of  God's  sky,  to 
express  this  tumult  in  sweetest  mu- 
sic, to  body  forth  this,  which,  my 
brother,  you  and  1  have  to  express, 
or  to  kill,  or  to  explode,  into  forms 
of  philanthropy,  devoted  work  for 
man  and  God.  And  that  is  why 
this  scene  is  a  part  of  our  capital, 
one  of  the  spots  where  a  young  man 
sees  what  he  is,  v/ho  he  is,  why  he 
is  so  full  of  enthusiasm  and  hope, 
and  what  he  is  to  do  with  it. 

What  an  enigma  is  a  true  young 
28 


Young  Men  in  History 

man  to  himself!  He  dreams  more 
than  Oriental  dreams.  He  builds 
higher  than  Aladdin's  palace.  He 
wonders  what  to  do  with  all  his  rush 
of  life.  People  tell  him  to  "  be 
quiet."  Nothing  can  convince  him 
that  he  may  attempt  too  much.  To 
his  mind,  everything  depends  upon 
his  getting  to  work  now,  and  his 
working  all  the  time.  Put  him  un- 
der a  quiet,  somnolent  sky,  let  him 
calmly  think  it  over,  and  what  a 
waste  he  is,  in  all  the  universe,  if  he 
has  no  special  outlook  into  the  eter- 
nal, no  avenue  for  himself  into  the 
realms  above  him,  around  him,  be- 
fore him.  This  baptism  scene  is  the 
brave  and  triumphant  solution  of  the 
problem.  It  is  the  sketch,  made  in 
29 


Young  Men  in  History 

the  far  past,  for  all  time  to  come,  of 
young  manhood  consecrated.  Be- 
hold, the  heavens  open,  the  dove 
descends,  the  temporal  is  lying  like 
a  babe  in  the  lap  of  the  eternal;  the 
young  man's  heart  is  with  God, 
while  the  drops,  shot  through  and 
through  with  the  life  and  light  of 
Jehovah,  fall  tremulously  from  His 
forehead,  and  the  ripples  of  His  bap- 
tism die  away  along  the  newly 
fretted  shore. 

I  therefore  take  the  expression  in 
all  its  simple  grandeur,  that,  when 
this  young  Jew  was  thus  consecrat- 
ing Himself  unto  the  service  of  God 
and  man,  by  the  hands  of  another, 
the  heavens  of  the  ideal  God's  pur- 
pose and  plan  opened  —  the  illimit- 
30 


Young  Men  in  History 

able  was  seen  overspanning  all  that 
had  been  limited;  the  infinitude  of 
His  hitherto  finite  life  was  made 
manifest,  and  the  heavenwardness 
and  Godwardncss  of  consecrated 
human  life  were  forever  made  evi- 
dent. And  that,  my  brother,  is  what 
is  always  happening  to  any  of  us 
who  will  not  begin  our  life  work 
until  we  feel  that  over  us  have  rolled 
the  waves  of  some  sacred  influence, 
and  within  us  has  been  born  the 
ideal  life.  We  want  the  opening 
of  the  heavens ;  we  want  the  de- 
scending dove.  That  scene  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  was  the  discovery  of 
life's  importance. 

We  feel  enough  of  the  earthliness 
of  life.     It  is   not   very  hard  to  find 
31 


Young  Men  in  History 

out  that  a  man  has  a  body.  Hunger 
will  make  that  revelation.  It  takes 
no  royal  teacher  to  make  us  believe 
in  our  hands,  and  feet,  and  ears,  and 
eyes.  A  little  "cold  snap"  or  a 
heavily  loaded  table  vi^ill  open  up 
all  these  facts,  and  most  people  un- 
derstand the  importance  of  them. 
What  we  need  is  a  revelation  of  the 
heavenliness  of  life.  Thanks  be 
unto  God,  to  give  our  life  in  glad 
self  surrender  unto  Him  is  to  find 
heights  in  life  that  no  kite  of  our 
thought  ever  could  have  discovered, 
and  to  bring  to  our  notice  great  stars 
which  we  may  civilize,  which  no 
telescope  can  reveal.  The  idea  — 
nay,  rather  the /act  —  of  an  immor- 
tal destiny  takes  the  iron  mask  from 
32 


Young  Men  in  History 

the  eyes  and  forehead  of  any  soul. 
There  is  no  firmament  above  one, 
after  that  discovery  in  God's  love, 
but  the  infinite. 

This  dome  of  bone,  which  we 
name  our  skull,  at  once  becomes  as 
large  as  the  very  heaven.  Its 
edges  touch  the  verge  of  all  things. 
Its  zenith  strikes  the  high  center  of 
eternity.  Under  it  move  life  currents 
which  mirror  back  the  stars  of  God. 
That  is  just  the  help  of  Christ's  re- 
ligion to  every  other  young  man. 
Nothing  can  be  ordinary  in  its  at- 
mosphere. The  heavens  are  opened 
above  everything.  No  duty  is  small, 
because  life  itself  is  so  great.  Every 
due  thing  is  due  to  God,  who  is  all- 
loving,  from  man,  whose  possible 
33 


Young  Men  in  History 

destiny  is  so  great.  That  makes 
duty.  Nothing  is  so  strange  as  that 
men  should  talk  about  making  a 
young  man  moral  without  making 
him  religious.  Suppose  that  we  do 
not  believe  religiously,  affectionately, 
in  a  divine  destiny  for  us.  What 
heart  would  we  have  for  the  stern 
moralities  that  shall  make  men  of 
us?  Why,  if  we  shall  not  be  al- 
lowed to  rise  into  lofty  and  loftier 
manhood  forever,  why  shall  we  be- 
gin the  business  at  all  ?  It  must  end 
in  failure.  Above  all  such  weari- 
some doubt,  which  the  hope  and  en- 
thusiasm of  a  young  man  heartily 
despise,  there  is  a  ruling  idea  of  a 
great  future  under  the  great  God 
who  aims  at  the  greatness  of  man 
34 


Young  Men  in  History 

and  his  consequent  glory.  Every 
line  in  life  becomes  sacred  for  the 
sake  of  the  picture  it  helps  to  make; 
every  string  in  the  woof  is  dear  for 
the  sake  of  the  dear  figure  it  will 
hold  when  the  Divine  One  is  done 
weaving. 

Nothing  but  such  a  sentiment  as 
this  can  answer  to  all  this  abounding 
enthusiasm  and  burning  hope  in  you 
and  me.  They  are  the  mute  and 
tumultuous  activity  of  our  powers  to 
be  men  after  the  heart  of  God. 
They  are  the  rumbling  fires,  which, 
when  let  out  of  the  caves,  shall 
smelt  the  ore  of  the  world  for  an- 
chors of  civilization,  for  ironclads 
of  progress ;  for  iron  orators  to 
speak  revolutions  in  flame  and  can- 
35 


Young  Men  in  History 

non  balls,  for  fine  strings  in  which 
reside  celestial  melodies,  for  threads 
of  thought  to  tie  up  the  world  into 
unity,  and  fasten  continent  to  conti- 
nent under  the  seas. 

Let  none  of  us,  my  brothers,  call 
our  full  and  uncontrollable  life  a 
curse.  This  life,  in  vein  and  mus- 
cle, in  nerve  and  bone,  which  you 
have  to  "  keep  down,"  is  only  your 
unused  capital.  It  docs  not  need 
repression,  but  consecration  and  ex- 
pression. It  must  not  be  pressed 
down  else  it  will  become  infer- 
nal. It  must  be  lifted  up,  then 
it  will  become  supernal.  The  more 
you  have  of  it,  the  greater  are 
your  possibilities.  It  is  capital,  bet- 
ter than  bank  stock.  It  must  be  the 
36 


Young  Men  in   History 

elixir  of  life  that  you  shall  draw 
upon  in  old  age.  Gladstone  and 
Bismarck  drew  from  a  youth  they 
could  once  hardly  control,  and  such 
people  never  get  old  nor  fall  behind 
the  times. 

And  the  theory  of  Jesus,  so  far 
as  we  may  find  it,  is  that  the  more 
earnestness  and  hope  one  has,  the 
more  need  he  has  of  finding  fit  ave- 
nues for  its  expression.  This  bap- 
tism is  the  discovery  of  these  ave- 
nues. I  point  you  to  Jesus  as  our 
representative,  not  only  in  the  right 
use  of  these  forces,  but  in  the  fact 
that  He  possessed  them  also.  Oh, 
what  enthusiasm  had  He  !  It  mounted 
beyond  that  of  all  others  of  the 
world's  great  men. 
37 


Young  Men  in  History 

The  baptism  came.  His  enthu- 
siasm rose  out  of  that  consecration 
to  bear  on  its  mighty  front  the 
bleeding  hearts  of  men,  the  suffer- 
ings of  untold  millions,  the  woes  of 
the  children  of  Adam,  the  cares  of 
the  ages,  the  defeats  of  all  time.  It 
rose  to  lead  all  the  diversities  of 
men,  all  the  armies  of  humanity,  all 
the  devotion  of  mankind — it  rose 
to  lead  them  into  the  land  of  palms 
and  laurels,  whose  vast  territory  is 
held  in  fee  simple  by  redeemed  hu- 
manity. His  hope  was  the  infinite 
dream  of  Plato  enlarged  into  infinite 
proportions.  It  was  the  fancy  sketch 
of  the  greatest  made  a  fact  and  suf- 
fused with  the  life  of  the  Son  of 
God.  That  was  what  He  became 
38 


Young  Men  in   History 

after  His  consecration — did  He  not 
feel  in  His  divine  way,  what  are  so 
earthly  and   human  in  us  ? 

In  that  baptism  Jesus  realized 
man's  place  in  the  plan  of  the  uni- 
verse. In  our  consecrated  life  we 
must  realize  our  relations  to  God's 
life.  You  go  out  to-morrow  into 
your  clerkship,  into  your  employer's 
bank,  into  your  own  business.  I 
charge  you,  so  give  yourself  in  glad 
consecration  to  God  to-day,  that  it 
shall  seem  as  though  the  waves  of 
the  ideal  life  have  touched  you,  and 
that  wherever  you  stand,  henceforth, 
you  stand  for  the  eternal  God.  Yon- 
der in  Galilee  is  our  ideal,  my  broth- 
ers !  He  stands  for  God,  wherever 
He  is.  He  has  the  ellipse  of  God's 
39 


Young  Men  in  History 

life  passing  through  His  soul ;  and 
such  is  His  calm  of  spirit  and 
strength  of  feeling  that  He  cries  :  "  I 
and  the  Feather  are  one."  I  adore 
His  divinity,  but  I  cannot  fail  to  see 
that  wherever  a  young  man  stands 
for  justice,  truth,  honor,  purity,  and 
holds  that  corner  of  the  universe 
against  all  intruders,  he  may  say  with 
a  holy  enthusiasm  and  a  reverent 
ardor :  "  I  and  the  Father  are 
one;"  one  as  to  the  importance 
of  this  great  battle  of  principles, 
one  in  the  thought  of  who  shall 
succeed,  one  in  the  joy  of  the  vic- 
tory. Brothers,  let  us  claim  no 
other  young  man  as  our  champion 
and  ideal.  I  see  Him  breasting  every- 
thing and  conquering  everything, 
40 


Young  Men  in  History 

because  the  heavens  of  His  life  had 
been  opened  at  that  baptism. 

Under  the  open  heavens,  in  the 
fact  of  life's  heavenwardness,  I  dis- 
cern also  the  rising  consciousness  of 
a  young  man's  relation  unto  His  race. 
Such  a  sky  has  His  mind  become 
that  He  sees  the  horizon-rim  taking 
every  man  in.  He  feels  that  into 
His  life  pour  the  interests  of  His  age. 

Like  a  forester  with  a  newly 
sharpened  ax  he  walks  on,  over 
fallen  trees,  and  feels  as  he  goes  on, 
and  the  chips  fly:  "  Behind  me  is 
a  race  wanting  to  get  through  these 
thickets  ;  I  chop  and  chop  away  ;  1 
chop  for  them ;  1  chop  for  every- 
body that  ever  shall  walk  this  road; 
they  are  coming  behind  me,  and  I  go 
41 


Young  Men  in   History 

on  and  on."  Like  Arnold  Wlnkel- 
ried  he  feels  that  it  is  not  simply  his 
getting  through,  but  it  is  the  princi- 
ple which  he  champions  which  be- 
longs to  humanity ;  a  single  poor 
soldier,  with  the  audacity  of  his 
principle,  cries  not,  "  Make  way  for 
Arnold  Winkelried,"  but  "  Make 
way  for  liberty!"  The  open  heav- 
ens are  so  vast  that  a  man  cannot  be 
small.  Under  them  he  sees  a  race, 
and  feels  that  when  he  conquers  or 
himself  at  his  best,  he  conquers  also 
for  humanity. 

But  the  poorest  young  man  can- 
not feel  his  own  dignity  until  he  re- 
alizes how  all  the  past  makes  him 
its  heir  and  custodian.  The  past  Is  al- 
ways dying.  It  is  always  saying — 
42 


Young  Men  in  History 

when  it  feels  the  great  canopy  of 
eternity  over  it — "  In  the  name  of 
God,  Amen,"  and  forthwith,  in  such 
sacred  air  as  this,  it  is  giving  its 
treasures  into  our  hands.  We  are 
born  heirs  of  the  years  and  ages, 
with  their  results.  And  upon  us 
also  is  saddled  the  work  of  the  execu- 
tor of  the  will  and  the  administra- 
tors of  the  estate.  We  ought  to  be 
wonderfully  honest  with  past,  pres- 
ent and  future  to  do  all  this.  And 
for  my  part,  I  see  nothing  but  the 
consecration  of  our  life  to  God,  that 
shall  make  us  fit  to  do  this  great 
work  and  fill  this  great  office. 
"  Heir,  executor  of  the  last  will  and 
testament,  and  the  administrator  of 
the  past." 

43 


Young  Men  in  History 

That  Is  our  dignified  business,  to 
settle  with  the  p;reat  future  the  busi- 
ness of  the  great  beneficiary,  to  ad- 
minister in  truth  and  equity  this 
great  legacy.  You  carry  it  all  with 
you ;  with  it  you  succeed  or  fail. 
Will  you  dare  to  load  it  on  your 
back  without  the  dove  upon  your 
forehead  and  the  heavens  all  open 
under  the  throne  of  Jehovah !  It 
will  break  you  down  if  you  try  to 
carry  it  alone. 

Only  in  the  waves  of  such  a  con- 
secration as  this  can  a  young  man 
have  a  safe  and  true  idea  of  con- 
duct. To  the  music  of  that  bap- 
tism, what  a  wretched  and  devilish 
discord  is  sin.  Under  the  heavens 
opened  up,  so  that  you  may  see  who 

44 


Young  Men  in  History 

God  is  and  what  our  life  ought  to 
be,  what  an  infernal  thing  it  is  to 
soil  our  manhood,  crush  our  possi- 
bilities, and  ruin  our  souls.  Every 
smallest  duty  has  an  infinite  scope. 

All  through  the  life  that  now  is, 
flow  out  the  land  of  the  life  to  come 
rivers  of  Jordan,  whose  waters  have 
divided  the  land  which  some  Moses 
of  the  past  had  left,  from  that  into 
which  some  Joshua  had  entered  — 
great  streams  which  have  rolled  be- 
tween the  real  and  the  ideal.  Into 
one  of  these  Jesus  went,  saying : 
"  Suffer  it  to  be  so  now."  All  the 
streams  of  the  earth  felt  the  break 
of  Jordan's  current  by  His  baptism. 
Onward  to  the  sea  and  gathered  into 
the  clouds,  this  baptism  went  into 
45 


Young  Men  in  History 

the  dew  and  rain,  and  at  last  fell 
again  into  the  seas  which  refresh  our 
planet.  Its  ripples  still  play  along 
the  coast  as  its  significance  has 
broken  against  the  shores  of  eter- 
nity. It  has  revivified  the  conti- 
nents of  mankind.  It  has  passed 
through  the  shores  into  the  center 
of  the  human  soul.  Its  rhythm  has 
come  from  coast  to  coast  and  begun 
a  new^  music.  Its  flash,  under  God, 
has  revealed  nev^  forces  in  light,  and 
its  broad  ripple  has  become  a  wave 
which  tells  of  the  depth  of  the  wa- 
ter of  life.  To-day,  let  us  ask  some 
John  if  he  will  help  us  to  "  fulfill 
all  righteousness,"  and  let  us  seek  in 
this  baptism  the  opened  heavens  and 
the  descending  dove. 
46 


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